1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to furniture generally configured to use as desks. Specifically, the invention relates to a desk adapted for use with computer keyboard terminal equipment. Most specifically, the invention relates to a desk wherein the working surface of the desk top is preserved and usable access to a computer keyboard terminal is available to such a terminal supported by such a desk.
2. Prior Art
The computer is exerting a pervasive influence in the home and in small business establishments today. Originally only large businesses could afford the convenience of an on-premise computer. However, with the startling advances in technology which have been made in recent years, computers of small size and relatively reasonable costs are available to the small businessman and to individuals for use in their homes. When a computer is brought into the home or into a small business establishment, it is quite typical to find the various computer peripheral devices emplaced atop the working surface of conventional desks, tables and the like. With the computer devices so emplaced, the user is denied access to the working space normally provided by the desk or table top. Another disadvantage of such an arrangement is that the desk top is nominally at a height which supports computer keyboard terminals at an inconvenient height for comfortable typing.
Industry makes use of specialized work structures such as the data processing work station disclosed in Display patent, U.S. Pat. No. 253,445. Such a work station is highly specialized and is illusuited for use in the home or a business office.
Adding machines were a rudimentary form of today's calculators. Wege, in U.S. Pat. No. 1,827,128 issued Oct. 13, 1931, provided a calculator desk which sought to support an adding machine at a working height which was convenient for the operator. He removed a section of the working surface of a desk top and effectively located the removed section in a new plane below its original location. This provided a support surface at a lowered position for the adding machine and made the keyboard more handily accessible to the user. However, removal of the section of the working surface of the desk top resulted in a net decrease in the working surface available to the user.
Like Wege, Reed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,849,726 issued Mar. 15, 1932, provides a lowered working surface to bring a card punch machine down to a convenient working height. Once more, there is a significant loss in the available working surface of the desk top which lies in a plane above the surface on which the card punch machine rests.
Similar comments may be made with the stenographer's desk of Deaton, U.S. Pat. No. 2,793,926 issued May 28, 1957 and of the table of Blevins, U.S. Pat. No. 3,034,841 issued May 15, 1962.
Schreyer in U.S. Pat. No. 3,338,647 issued Aug. 29, 1967 discloses a desk which preserves the desk top working area by extending the desk length by adding thereto a lowered working surface on which a typewriter or the like may be situated at a convenient working height. The user of the desk need only slide his chair from one side to the other depending upon whether he wishes to make use of the desk top working surface or of the machine located on top of the lowered working surface. Unfortunately however, this results in inefficient use of the area beneath these working surfaces since it is necessary to provide knee space under both the desk top working surface and under the machine support surface.
Several desk designs have been derived in an effort to obtain additional working space on top of a desk. Typical of such attempts is U.S. Pat. No. Des. 161,959 issued to Park on Feb. 13, 1951 and Pat. No. D-57,075 issued to Fox on Feb. 8, 1921. Park provides a raised countertop above and to the rear of the desk top working surface. This raised counter is suitable for storage of books and papers but is not readily accessible as a working space to the user of the desk. Its availability, however, does permit the user to preserve handy access to various papers, books, catalogs and the like while leaving the working surface of the desk open and available. The working surface of the desk top, however, appears to be at conventional desk top height and would therefore be at an inconvenient height for use with a keyboard machine or the like. The Fox design modifies a conventional desk by mounting thereon a tee-shaped counter above the conventional desk top working surface. It would appear that this modification would make the desk awkward for one attempting to sit at the desk in the conventional manner. The raised countertop above the knee hole section is significantly higher than conventional desk tops. The desk top working surface to either side of the raised counter, that is to the left and the right of the knee hole space, is unavailable since there is no knee space beneath these surfaces. The conventional desk top work surface above the knee hole space is not available to the seated user except for the possible storage of paper or the like.
None of the known prior art permits the use of a manually operated device such as a computer keyboard terminal without sacrificing desk top working space.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a computer desk which preserves desk top work space while providing for support of and usable access to a computer keyboard terminal.
It is a further objective of the invention to provide a computer desk which will support a computer keyboard terminal at a convenient working height for a user seated at such desk while preserving the desk top working space undiminished by the computer keyboard terminal.
It is a specific objective of the invention to provide a computer desk which makes efficient use of the desk top work space, which desk may be utilized for the support of computer devices in an efficiently useful, eye appealing arrangement.